Flexing through an Incredible Experience
I met Henry Howard when I was a senior in high school while in the process of making the momentous decision of which college to attend. At the time, Henry was a senior in the Business Honors Program at UT Austin, and he was the leader of my group at an introductory event to the program for admitted students. During the event, Henry took the time to answer all of my questions with extreme care, and by the end, he had turned any initial feelings of nervousness into excitement.
Little did I know that this interaction with Henry was foreshadowing my wonderful experience with him as my boss two years later during my internship at FlexPoint Consulting.
A Caring Team
By the end of the first week of my internship, after completing my introductory 1:1s with everyone on the FlexPoint team, I could easily tell that the whole team is just as caring and supportive as Henry. It was apparent that the FlexPoint team genuinely cared about understanding me and learning how they could help me make the most of my internship experience.
On my first day, I was encouraged to create a “user guide” for myself, essentially giving me the opportunity to share best practices for teammates to collaborate and share feedback with me (read more about user guides in our blog about lasting teamwork) as well as my goals for the internship. Throughout the semester, Henry and Michael (our founder) would then check in regularly to ensure that my assigned work was aligned with those goals. I am very grateful for their thoughtfulness in ensuring my internship was everything I had hoped it would be.
In addition, throughout the four months I was at FlexPoint, everyone helped me feel like a true part of the team, not just “the intern”, through small but impactful inclusive practices such as explaining any inside jokes during team meetings and including me in banter.
Furthermore, the team also included me in client meetings and project discussions wherever possible so I could gain more exposure to real-world consulting project work (my biggest goal for the internship). Moreover, during internal project meetings and conversations about marketing efforts, they always asked for my thoughts and ideas, which made me feel like a valued team member.
Investing in My Learning
Attending and participating in those meetings was a fantastic learning experience. The team always included me in other areas whenever there was a chance to learn more about the work involved in consulting projects as well. I benefited from the opportunities to observe how the team interacted with the clients and vendors, understand FlexPoint’s approaches for various service offerings, and assist with certain project and marketing content deliverables.
I especially appreciated that FlexPoint entrusted me with ownership over several tasks even early-on in my internship. The hands-on experiences definitely improved my learning and helped me make greater contributions to the team.
Although I only spent a few months with FlexPoint, I learned a lot about various processes and have already been able to apply that new knowledge in my classes and other extracurricular projects. I appreciate the team’s investment in me and my growth, and I hope my contributions had as much impact for FlexPoint as learning from the team had on me.
Conclusion
I am so grateful to the FlexPoint team for all the kindness that they all showered me with and all of the incredible learning opportunities they gave me. During my internship, FlexPoint published several blogs about strategies for lasting teamwork and engagement in an organization, and from my experience, I can honestly say that at FlexPoint, the team practices what it preaches.
I have truly had the best internship experience with FlexPoint over the past few months, and I am immensely thankful to have had this opportunity to work with and learn from such an incredible team.